Sunday, August 7, 2011

Rise of the Planet of the ... um Apes??

I have been and always will be a massive fan of the Planet of the Apes movies. I was skeptical about the newest one, labeled a prequel, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Then I found myself, in typical Jake fashion, watching every trailer over and over, getting more pumped with each passing day.

Doing our every Saturday girls night out, I apprehensively suggested to Terri that we go see the new movie. I've known Terri since we were eight. I say ‘apprehensively’ because Terri likes to talk in the movies. I am guilty of that, too, my own daughters hate going to the movies with me because of that. However, I don’t shout out things. Terri, who is actually highly intelligent, tends to check a small portion of her thinking at the theater door so she can have ‘shout out’ moments. If she didn’t do that, I wouldn’t have much to pick on her about.

Memorable ones to me are when we went to see Scooby Doo and she shouted out, “Oh my Gawd! I can’t believe they brought that dog on the plane. You know he’s not going to behave.”

And more recently, during Battle LA, she shouted. “OH, sure, like we’re supposed to believe they’re in a basement in Los Angeles. There are no basements in California, it’s sand and swamp.”

“No, Ter, that’s Florida. Opposite end of the country, babe.”

When Terri suggested we pay the extra 5 bucks for VIP seating in a closed off room, I agreed. What a cool experience and perfect for people like me and Terri who talk about what’s happening. And we did. We discussed that entire movie.

Then again, when our friend Dom showed up late and started asking questions, we were both quick to tell him, “Shh! Dom. Quiet!” poor guy.

The movie moved at a great pace. The writing was tight, acting awesome, and every single time I saw a young Caesar (Main chimp) I kept thinking of my granddaughter Violet and how much he reminded me of her. Those big sad eyes . . . See for yourself. I know. I’m horrible.

Anyhow, midway through the movie, Terri shouted out, “Why is he calling the apes, they aren’t apes.”

I ignored it, she said it again, finally, at the end of the movie, she stood up and said, “The only problem I had with this movie is they kept calling them apes.”

“That’s because that’s what they are,” I told her.

“No,” she said. “I saw chimps, baboons, and a gorilla, I didn’t see any apes.”

I told her they’re all part of the ape family. And it would be like going to see a movie called, “Fish’ and seeing a trout, Bass and Carp and saying she didn’t see any fish. She gave me her stock, grumble ‘hmm’. But as soon as we stepped from the theater, she must have grabbed that brain portion because she got it.

Oh, yeah, the movie. Go see it. Don’t judge it on the trailer, because for the first time, the trailer doesn’t give away the story. It exceeded my expectations and it’s better than it should be. I can’t wait to see it again. Although, after Terri reads this blog, she may never go to a movie with me again. Shame, too, since I discovered the secret of movie going . . . VIP room.